The improved female villains regained their memories.

"It's over, only he's left."

"He can even kill his own family, the lord will definitely want him."

"This is the last one, and he's the only one who passed the test, so let's take him..."

Before he could finish speaking, a commotion erupted.

"Someone's chasing us!"

"It's the Xiang family! Oh no, we've been discovered."

"Take this child and leave. Don't worry about the scene. We don't need anyone else."

Boom!

The room door was pushed open.

The black cloth in front of her was removed, and in the light, the man squatted down in front of her, touching her hair.

"Child, your name is Nangong Qingyang, right?"

-------------

That man's name is Xiang Yan.

He was on good terms with Nangong Qingyang's father. When the Nangong family was in trouble, he was the first to react and rushed to the scene.

After discovering that Nangong Qingyang was missing, he decisively used his ingenious method, leading his men to track him down and finally bringing Nangong Qingyang back near the border.

From then on, Nangong Qingyang's fate became inextricably linked with the Xiang family and this incident.

She entered the Xiang family mansion, became Xiang Yan's father, and studied with the Xiang family's children.

In the Xiang family, the food, clothing, and daily necessities were a hundred times better than at home, but there was not even a tenth of the warmth of home. Xiang Yan was busy with affairs and rarely returned to the Xiang residence, so Nangong Qingyang was only accompanied by loneliness.

The young masters and ladies of the Xiang family disliked her, the servants treated her perfunctorily, and they wouldn't even let her touch the core secrets and ingenious methods. Although her food, clothing, and shelter were not harsh, the cold violence against her had begun to spread.

Nangong Qingyang kept quiet and, relying on the knowledge her master had stored in her mind, focused on cultivating her own power of destiny.

Soon, the world in her eyes was no longer colorful; the lines of fate intertwined and interwoven, making them clear and understandable to her.

She looked at her fate line and saw the tribulation destined for her.

-------------

Of all the stories her master left her, the most terrifying was the one about her life-threatening tribulation.

Those who are destined for a life-threatening calamity will perish, and even the power of gods and humans cannot reverse the situation in the slightest.

In those few childhood memories, his father's words resurfaced once again: "What is destined to happen is fate."

Facing death in the future is Nangong Qingyang's destiny.

But she didn't want to die.

The deaths of her parents left a deep shadow in her heart. In fact, she was very afraid. She was afraid of death, afraid of being like her parents, decapitated and unable to move.

Death is truly terrifying.

She, Nangong Qingyang, was a coward. She didn't want to die, didn't want to die inexplicably like her parents.

Her father said that what makes someone remarkable is wanting to change something they know is destined to happen. Nangong Qingyang didn't want to be remarkable; she simply didn't want to die.

Linlang Sect caused the innocent deaths of her parents for some ridiculous reason. Does Heaven also want to cause the innocent deaths of its own people for some ridiculous reason?

She didn't want it to be like this.

She wanted to change; she wanted to be that amazing person.

Therefore, she refused the Xiang family's instruction and ignored their emotional abuse. She locked herself in her room and studied the power of destiny every day.

Xiang Yan visited several times and advised her to go out and make more friends, but she refused each time.

Making friends can amplify the calamities in your life.

Nangong Qingyang's code of conduct changed from then on; she would only do things that could help her overcome her life-threatening tribulations, and only associate with people who could help her resist them.

-------------

The person who saved her from this calamity was both far away and right before her eyes.

That man was named Xiang Ju, a marginal figure in the Xiang family, born out of wedlock. In the vast Xiang mansion, he and his mother depended on each other for survival.

His mother was one of Xiang Yan's younger brother's many concubines. Because of her bad background and because Xiang Yan's younger brother disliked her, the mother and son were in a very bad situation in the mansion.

If the violence against Nangong Qingyang was passive-aggressive, then the violence against Xiang Ju was intense.

When she first met Xiang Ju, she walked down the corridor and saw several young men and women surrounding and beating up a boy.

They seemed to be trying to snatch something from the boy's arms, but the boy held on tightly, refusing to give it to them.

Seeing that they couldn't snatch it after a while, they gave up on the idea, and with a grin, kicked him to the ground, letting him bark like a dog.

The boy pursed his lips, bent over, and lay on the ground without uttering a sound.

Perhaps finding it boring, the young men and women hurled a few insults at the end and then dispersed.

Nangong Qingyang stepped forward, and the boy looked at him, then retreated warily, his hands clenched tightly in front of his chest.

She could see clearly that it appeared to be a piece of jade.

"Don't be afraid." Nangong Qingyang squatted down in front of him and took out the elixir: "I won't take it from you. They beat you badly. You're injured. I'll apply the medicine to you."

The boy remained wary until Nangong Qingyang applied the medicine to the wound on his arm, at which point he relaxed his guard slightly.

Nangong Qingyang asked, "Does it hurt?"

He shook his head and said softly, "Thank you, sister."

The address "elder sister" made Nangong Qingyang pause for a moment. She continued to wipe the boy's wounds and said, "I am not from your Xiang family."

The boy looked at her, confused: "But, aren't you...?"

"My name is Nangong Qingyang, not Xiang Qingyang. I hope you remember that." After applying the medicine, Nangong Qingyang watched as the bruises visibly faded, then wiped his hands and said, "That's enough."

"Thank you, thank you..."

Why didn't you shout?

"what?"

"I say, why don't you bark?" Nangong Qingyang said, "Just by barking like a dog a few times, you can avoid a beating. Isn't that great?"

The boy shook his head and said stubbornly, "The Master said that a true man should have backbone."

Nangong Qingyang chuckled: "What use is backbone if one day we lose our lives?"

The boy was surprised by Nangong Qingyang's words, his lips moved but he couldn't say anything for a long time.

Nangong Qingyang laughed and wiped his dirty face with a handkerchief: "Just kidding. It's good that you have your own principles."

Yes, that's good.

The boy lowered his head shyly, not daring to look at her, but he didn't expect that in Nangong Qingyang's eyes, she saw a strong line of fate.

This fate line forcefully drilled into her fate line, shielding her from the fatal calamity destined for her.

Nangong Qingyang thought to himself that he was a despicable and shameless person.

But what does such despicable behavior matter in order to survive?

She would help the boy, and care for and protect him like an older sister to him.

In his most desperate moments, she will become his light.

Only in this way would he be willing to shield her from the calamity of death in her life, so that she could survive in the future.

Nangong Qingyang is such a despicable and shameless woman.

-------------

She thus stumbled into Xiang Ju's destiny.

In this cold, ruthless noble mansion, she continually bestowed warmth upon Xiang Ju.

After he was beaten, she would appear to apply medicine to him; when he was hungry, she would appear on time to bring him homemade food; when winter was approaching, she would share half of the supplies for keeping warm with her and her son.

Every time she appeared, it was when he was covered in wounds, when he was trapped in darkness, when he was confused and helpless.

As she wished, the boy gradually opened his heart to her.

"Sister!" One day, while she was practicing in her room, the boy rushed in excitedly, handed her the jade pendant he had been protecting, and said, "This is a jade pendant that my mother gave me. It's a very powerful magic artifact. My mother and I have discussed it and decided to give it to you."

Nangong Qingyang looked at the jade in his palm and chuckled softly, "Why did you give it to me?"

The boy blushed and it took him a long time to say, "Because my elder sister has helped us a lot and is the kindest person to me in this mansion, I want to repay you."

Nangong Qingyang shook his head: "I'm not helping you for these reasons. Take it back, I don't want it."

Yes, that's not what she wanted; she wanted the boy's life.

He'd rather take his life than give up his own.

Later, the boy brought it up several more times, but Nangong Qingyang refused each time, so he had to give up.

One night, Nangong Qingyang had a dream. She dreamed of her deceased father and mother. She seemed to have returned to that cold, dark day. She got out of bed and, like a walking corpse, pushed open the door, seeing her headless parents standing in the yard.

Then, the boy stood behind her, pushed her, and tried to kill her.

"You despicable and shameless person, you're afraid of dying like your parents, so you've come to me to pay for your life!"

Nightmares woke her up in the middle of the night, and she trembled with fear.

"I, I......."

She suddenly burst into tears, but she didn't know why she was crying.

All she knew was that when the sky was lit up, she would wipe away her tears and become the confidante older sister in the boy's eyes.

-------------

As time went by, her feelings for the boy deepened, and the boy became more and more reliant on her.

A crucial turning point in their destiny was approaching, and Nangong Qingyang saw it clearly, yet he offered no warning to the boy.

Finally, the turning point arrived: the boy's mother died.

The reason was that a magical artifact was stolen from the manor, and they all suspected that the boy was the thief. Xiang Yan's younger brother's wife arrested the boy and imprisoned him in the family prison, where she interrogated him personally.